Amerith - The Warden's Tale: Dragons Run My Life

Summary

The girl Amerith, a plant gatherer for a Potions Master, is thrown out as too old, by which the Master means too big to fetch all the plants he needs. Surviving trials and tribulations, she grows up to be a skilled thief until she finds herself on the business end of the block.Two full purses later, the "young dead girl" rises to become a world-class assassin, named for her profession, Dunver, until she takes the role of Warden Mistress to the Princesses of Lindebalgh. Her mentor and her debt will return to wreak havoc on more than the Warden's life.Amerith is a short side trip that adds to the experience of Toile and its characters. It is best read between Book One, The Faux Princess, and Book Two, The True Princess.

Amerith - The Warden's Tale - tony lavely

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Edition 190424.3

All rights reserved.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite e-tailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from Tony Lavely.

Map - Amerith Details

(Pink is Bwichblaenau - Border south)

Description

The girl Amerith, a plant gatherer for a Potions Master, is thrown out as too old, by which the Master means too big to fetch all the plants he needs. Surviving trials and tribulations, she grows up to be a skilled thief until she finds herself on the business end of the block.

Two purses later, the young dead girl rises to become a world-class assassin, named for her profession, Dunver, until she takes the role of Warden Mistress to the Princesses of Lindebalgh. Her mentor and her debt will return to wreak havoc on more than the Warden’s life.

Amerith is a short side trip that adds to the experience of Toile and its characters. It is best read between Book One, The Faux Princess, and Book Two, The True Princess.

Amerith: The Warden's Tale

13 Tainold, 527 - 5 Maryka, 550

1: Collector

13 - 14 Tainold, 527

"B lood! What’s this? Between your legs! Nay! They told me, nay promised me this would not be! He threw the rag Amerith had worn back across her face. I’ll not… I’ll not!" he screamed, heedless of her lack of attention. The dray-beast hauling the wagon didn’t like the noise; it picked up its pace from torpid to lethargic.

Amerith reached between her legs; the blood was still there. Her tummy hurt, too.

The man kicked something that bounced off the box beside her before striking her under the eye. Oww! After the ’dar so far, she sobbed. Nothing made any sense.

The crying apparently angered him more than the blood; he grabbed her arm and stood her up, then planted his foot in the middle of her back. The kick propelled her out the open back of the wagon. She landed on her face in the mud of the road, arms and legs outflung, naked. Rocks dug into her cheek on the other side from the spot where that thing had hit her, scraped her chest bones; a large stone cracked her knee.

For a minute, she lay there without moving except to turn her nose and mouth out of the liquid soil. When she moved, she discovered that, when snatched off the wagon’s floor, she’d clutched the rag she’d covered herself with. For the next minute, she scraped what mud she could from her skin and fought her way into the soaked garment.

Rain increased, and the night became even darker. Her eyes were sharp, she knew that, and still she had trouble. Crack A flash the other side of that hill was followed by a polite boom-boom-boo.

CRACK BOOM

This flash blinded her, knocked her on her ass; when she could see, a tree perhaps five paces away lay shattered, burning. She shook her head, then stepped toward the burning wood.

Her lessons on fire came back. It provided heat. Used for cooking. It hurt when touched. Water doused it. When she reached the pieces of wood, she proved the first and last of these again. She touched the charred end of a splinter and snatched her finger back.

A rider drove his mount by on the road; the mud from the horse’s hooves splashed. She stuck out her tongue. The good feeling didn’t last a moment.

Crack was followed by a low rumble this time, but farther away. She relaxed her clenched fists and looked around.

The destroyed tree had escaped its mates to die; the others were another few paces from the road. The grass was long, beginning new growth. She didn’t expect to freeze, but the rain was not warm. She gave small thanks, first that the road was not stone, as some were, second that she’d gotten out of the way before the horseman had raced by and lastly that while chilly, the weather was in the warming season. White frozen rain would not fall to’dar.

She found a bush she could creep under, exchanging the rain drops for the steady drip-drip of the water off the leaves. Just yester’dar the man had taken her long cold weather rag and given her this short one. Covering her head left everything below her navel exposed. If she pulled it to cover even her hips, her shoulders lay bare.

Lying was better than standing; she could pull her legs to her chest.

The pain in her belly had gone, replaced by hunger. She glanced around her again, but her vision from under the bush was limited.

With a sigh, she curled tighter and bit her knuckle to forget the hunger pangs.

He was to turn me out in a few thir’dars. I’m too big for tha gathering.

Her purpose hadn’t changed as far back as she remembered. While she couldn’t count them, she recognized forty-five different herbs and plants. Carefully and with much pain, she’d learned precisely when and how to collect each one of them, and then return them to the man.

A few were food, but he didn’t allow her to gather for food often. Her gatherings went into his brews and potions, brews and potions she didn’t touch. At all. The onset of warmer weather meant he’d trade for a new girl